Fixing similar problems with the teachers-retirement plan could cost more than the Cleveland
schools spend on textbooks each year and more than it spends to get students to school.

The budget hit to Cleveland schools would be about what it costs to put 110 teachers in
classrooms.

For other sizable districts in the Cleveland area, the fix would kick about a dozen teachers to
the curb or would mean things such as busing, sports and clubs would be axed.

Of course, there's always the old standby: You pay more in taxes.

Ohio's five public-employee retirement plans already cost Ohio taxpayers more than $4 billion a
year, according to an analysis by
The Plain Dealer and seven other Ohio newspapers.

But the pension plans for police officers, firefighters and teachers have asked taxpayers to pay
more.

Under the state's system, governments pay a fixed percentage of employee wages into one of five
plans for different types of employees: municipal workers, teachers, a mix of other school
employees, state police, and local police officers and firefighters.

Those percentages have not changed in decades, but officials of some of the plans say
stock-market losses and rising health-care costs for retirees put the current level of benefits
in

jeopardy.

So the State Teachers Retirement System wants taxpayers to chip in 16.5 percent of wages, up
from 14 percent. That increase would be phased in through 2016.

Firefighters have asked for an increase from 24 percent of wages to 25 percent in 2013.

Police officers have asked for

by far the largest jump: from the 19.5 percent city contribution to 25 percent by 2013.

The pension plans and the Ohio Retirement Study Council have asked the state legislature to
approve those increases and other plan adjustments.

Local officials arecringing at the damage that increases could do to their cities and schools,
even though the requests still have to clear several political hurdles before they could take
effect.

"It would put an undue burden on our general fund," said Cleveland Finance Director Sharon
Dumas.

The city could see police and fire retirement costs rise by $6 million a year from today's $32
million. "They're already significantly high. We would vehemently oppose any increases to the
fund."

Suburban governments such as the Mentor school district also are balking at the costs. District
Treasurer Dan Wilson, who helped run another state retirement system a few years ago, thinks the
State Teachers Retirement System could have found "and should find" ways to solve the financial
problems without going to taxpayers.

"Our school district is not in support of it, and I don't expect the taxpayers would be," he
said.

The number of employees and their salaries will change over the next few years as the proposed
increases would be phased in, making it hard to predict their exact effect on local budgets. But
when applying the full proposed increases to today's budgets, the effects would be substantial.

Mentor would be one of seven school districts in northeastern Ohio to take a budget hit of more
than $1 million a year. The others are Cleveland, Akron, Parma, Lorain, Willoughby-Eastlake and
Cleveland Heights-University Heights. For Cleveland schools, the added costs would be nearly $8.3
million.

Using a statewide estimate of average teacher salary and benefit costs (including existing
retirement costs, plus health care), those increases would be equal to a dozen teachers in places
such as Medina, which already is cutting dozens of positions; seven in districts such as Orange; 50
in Akron and 110 in Cleveland.

The dollar amounts for cities would be lower than for school districts. But for cities such as
Cleveland, where the police and fire departments account for more than half the budget, the costs
still would be substantial: $5.5 million in Cleveland and

$1.6 million for Akron in extra retirement costs for police officers alone.

In Cleveland, that hit amounts to more than the police department spends to repair and fuel
police cruisers in a year, plus the cost of all phones in the stations.

Cities such as Euclid, Elyria, Lorain, Shaker Heights and Strongsville would take hits of more
than $200,000 a year.

Statewide salary and benefit averages for police officers were not available, but in Cleveland,
those costs amount to $82,000 per officer or firefighter. Safety forces generally make different
amounts in different cities. But using Cleveland's pay, the retirement-cost increases would equal
about the cost of four officers in cities such as Lakewood and Lorain, three in cities such as
Shaker Heights and five in Parma.

In Brunswick, the increases would add up to nearly two police officers or firefighters. That
might anger voters who just passed a tax to avoid cutting safety forces.

"If these go through, that would have an impact on our ability to sustain or expand our safety
forces as we outlined in our levy campaign," said Finance Director William White, who had hoped the
tax would last until 2013. "That's an added expense we weren't planning for."

Cleveland safety Director

Martin Flask, who supervises more than 1,600 officers, declined to comment on the

potential effects.

Cleveland already is asking its unions for concessions and has been rebuffed by the police
union, among others.

Cleveland, like other communities, is not considering trying to reduce spending on retirement
plans as they deal with budget crunches. Those amounts are set by the state, not local governments,
and officials just look at them as the basic cost of doing business in Ohio.